August 18, 2007

Private Schools and Charitable Status

Excellent, don’t you think?

Private schools will be judged annually on whether they are doing enough for
the poor in order to qualify for tax breaks worth £100 million a year, the
charities regulator has told The Times.
…

Dame Suzi’s comments come amid growing concern about the attainment divide
between schools in the private and state sectors.

In the past decade private schools have seen a 16.3 per cent increase in the
proportion of A grades at A level, compared with only 5 per cent at
comprehensives.

Many education experts fear this academic divide will get wider, bringing with
it increased social divisions.

So, the State funded schools are crap compared to hte privately so. What do we do about it? Make the State funded schools better? No, of course not! We punish the privately so!

Excellent, trebles all round!

Just one thing. Will other charities be subjected to the same tests? Will the National Trust have to do more for the poor? The Sith Institute? If not, why not?

Your Tax Money at Work

7 responses

anon

August 18, 2007

In the 70s, Labour wanted to kill private schools. The private schools responded by inquiring abroad – the French government (socialist) offered a better tax situation, guaranteed in perpetuity. They were going to pass a special law.
The point about fairness is interesting. There would be a good case in law that private schools do more charitable work than many other “charities”…

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Monty

August 18, 2007

The “problem” is not whether the private schools do enough for the “poor”. The problem is that they throw the risible state sector into sharp relief. That’s why the government is panicking to try and sink the private sector by any means possible. This same approach is also being taken towards the few successful state schools, which are being expanded to provide a beacon of excellence for disadvantaged pupils. (In English- they are being flooded with the very same knife wielding chavs who f*cked up their own sink schools in the first place. That’s how they seek to equalise performance.)

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harry b

August 18, 2007

Come on, private schools that claim charitable status have an easy option to avoid this “punishment” — they can stop claiming charitable status. Why they (rather than the National Trust etc)should so more for the poor is because most of them that claim charitable status have written into their trusts that part of their mission is to help the poor. So if they don’t they are breaking their trusts.
Tim adds: Fair point: happy to accept that those “who do” have written into said trusts that they should help the poor do indeed do so.

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Philip Thomas

August 18, 2007

Just one thing. Will other charities be subjected to the same tests? Will the National Trust have to do more for the poor? The Sith Institute? If not, why not?
Been watching Star Wars, Tim? I know Gordon Brown’s not pretty but he’s hardly Emperor Palpatine.

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Guido Fawkes

August 18, 2007

Private Schools will be able to keep their charitable status under the proposed rule changes simply by re-constituting themselves as tax-deductible political campaigns for Gordon.
It works for the Smith Institute.

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The Remittance Man

August 19, 2007

To be honest I suspect the status of “charity” is granted far too lavishly anyway. The honest thing would be to tighten the rules across the board.
Of course that would deprive politicians and others of slimy intent of their little slush funds. I’m not holdig my breath waiting for an outbreak of honesty in the Borough of Westminster any time soon.

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Maggie’s Farm

August 19, 2007

Sunday Links

A dumb blond. Cute photo from Theo, but if her fingers are on the triggers then she had better intend to fire those things. There is one right way, and there are many wrong ways, to display a handgun. Scary-dumb.Happy 60th Birthday to Larry Kudlow (yes…

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